Frequently Asked Questions

What is SecureMail?

SecureMail is a fully managed email protection service that prevents 99% of spam, phishing attempts, viruses, and other internet pollution from ever reaching your network. Since SecureMail is delivered as a service there is nothing to install, configure or manage. Setup is quick and easy, regardless of the size of the organization.

How does SecureMail determine which email to block?

Norman's service relies a collaboration of automated systems and people to block spam and viruses. The system is designed as a continuous, large-scale learning process where human and machine elements work together to evaluate messages. The machines do things that the people can't, such as comparing and cataloging features on millions of messages very quickly. Likewise, people do things that the machine can't, like recognizing a new spam or obfuscation technique with a single spam sample.

How reliable is SecureMail?

SecureMail was designed to have built in redundancies at every level: from SAS70 Level 2 compliant data centers spread across different continents, to bundling bandwidth from six major Network Providers to ensure reliability. Our Tier-1 facilities are located in Texas, Virginia, London and Hong Kong and are well-protected against power failure, equipment malfunction and natural disaster.

Does SecureMail work quickly?

In a fraction of a second, every piece of your company's email is subjected to a blend of proven filtering techniques. SecureMail filtering systems are constantly updated so illicit email is quickly identified and blocked. SecureMail can run approximately 70,000 signature tests against an email in under 5 milliseconds. Currently, SecureMail processes over 16 billion messages per month for about 45,000 companies on six continents.

How often are SecureMail’s rules updated?

The service is maintained and updated an average of 4,000 to 8,000 times a day, every day.

Does SecureMail screen outgoing mail as well?

Yes, the optional outbound email filtering program cleans all internal emails before they are sent from the network's system. This spam filtering service reduces the risk of improper routing and misuse of the company's resources, as well as unapproved messaging.

How long does it take to set up?

Internal standard is less than 24 hours, but account creation and MX record change notices usually are sent out in under two hours.

Why do I have to change my MX Record?

SecureMail resides between the Internet and your mail server. If your email is hosted by a third party, SecureMail sits between the Internet and your mail hosting company. By replacing your MX record with an MX record provided by SecureMail, your inbound mail will travel from the internet, through our screening process, where it will be scanned for spam and viruses, and then be passed to your network.

What happens to the captured mail and spam junk?

Each user is sent a daily Held Spam Report. If SecureMail identifies a legitimate message as spam, users can instantly release the wanted message directly from the report. Web access to the quarantined email is also available to administrators or end-users.

Is my mail protected during a disaster?

Yes. If a client server is not accepting email for any reason, SecureMail's delivery manager will encrypt and queue email until the client server is back online. So even if your internal servers are damaged or destroyed, you will still have access to several days of email that has been preserved on Norman’s servers.

How much does SecureMail cost?

Pricing for SecureMail is determined by your company's mailbox count, the required options, and by the length of service agreement. Contact us to receive pricing for your specific requirements.

How do I start using SecureMail?

Contact us your local Norman partner to setup your account. The next step will be to change your MX records, which we or your Norman partner can help you coordinate. Once the MX records have been changed, you are finished. No more spam